AMERICAN 
December, 1911 
O more beautiful custom has been brought over 
from the poetic, mystic, legend-loving old world 
than the association of Holly and the Evergreen tree 
with the celebration of Christmas. Long may it 
live! Often it seems to me that our intensely prac- 
tical American atmosphere is stifling much of the 
beauty of life. And so this increasing tendency to decorate 
with greens during the Yuletide is a sign to be hailed with 
joy, for in time it cannot but foster an interest in the love 
of the quaint, sweet legendary lore which the old world 
so intimately associates with the greens of ye merrie Christ- 
mas tyme. 
“Lo! now is come the joyful’st feast! 
Let every man be jolly. ; 
Each room with Ivy leaves is drest. 
And eyery post with Holly.”’ 
Embodying in its glossy green leaves and brilliant berries 
the very spirit of this joyous season, Holly has ever been 
the most sought Christmas green. Fortunately, no other 
season makes demands upon it, so that it is associated wholly 
and only with the Yuletide. But while it holds the ranking 
place it is by no means the most used of Christmas greens. 
Even in merry England, where it grows to perfection, it 
is supplemented by other greens, chiefly the Ivy. 
Here in America several greens are used more extensively 
than the Holly, notably the Laurel and some of the Lycopo- 
diums. Both cost less and for certain purposes are better 
adapted, such as roping and festooning, but neither alone 
carries the Christmas spirit. Red is needed, and where a 
little Holly to mix with them may not be had, recourse to 
the bright-berried Black Alder or Fever-bush is made.  In- 
deed, these comparatively common and altogether beautiful 
berries, so closely resembling the true Holly berry, are often 
substituted for the latter, being used with barren Holly, 
especially in the making of wreathes. 
We still import Holly from England, but far the greater 
part of that offered in our markets is from the south, much 
of it from Virginia and the Carolinas. In New England it 
grows in some few favored spots, but not in sufficient quan- 
tities to figure in the market. I have found it on Cape 
Cod growing to perfection. 
Blessed be he who may himself gather the greens for his 
Christmas decorating and cut the tree of Christmas joy! 
I shall always feel that those who perforce must seek the 
market place for their Christmas greens are of the world’s 
poor, though in furs and silks be they gowned. At best 
the bunches and wreathes of shining green and red mean 
but the crossing with silver of the palm of commerce. 
Now that I am of the city’s bondage I love to linger over 
the first crates of Holly appearing in the market place. I 
love to linger and to dream, for there a vision arises, an 
oaken woodland, the trees for the most part bare, though 
here and yon one still holds the red-brown mummies of the 
HOMES AND 
Our 
Christmas Greens 
By Thornton W. Burgess 
“Again at Christmas did we weave 
The Flolly round the Christmas hearth.’ 
* Earth and glorifies with vestal beauty the molder- 
GARDENS 
summer’s foliage. A six-inch blanket of spotless 
white, new fallen, protects the nakedness of Mother 
ing trunk of a fallen forest giant. Frost rime fills 
the air with minute brilliants, exquisite while they last. 
Threading the aisles of gray-white tree trunks the 
eager eye catches the blur of a distant green mass. 
Pine or Spruce, Hemlock or 
the Christmas red! the jolly red! 
berried, glorious. 
another. 
as if trained by the hand of a landscape gardener. 
Is it 
ah, the red against the green! 
It is a Holly tree, full 
And there beyond is another and still 
Some are mere shrubs, but as perfect in shape 
Others 
are rough, scarred veterans of many a Christmas crusade. 
Not all give us berries. It is better so, for almost without 
exception those without have the handsomest foliage, it 
being a deeper, glossier green. Almost it seems a desecra- 
tion of Nature’s temple to strip these trees of their splendor. 
Indeed, it is this and nothing less to cut recklessly and 
wantonly. But, mindful ever of the years to come, I trim 
here a branch and there a spray until soon I have a back- 
load and no damage done my beautiful trees, for even the 
tree of the forest is the better for judicious pruning. 
In recent years a few misinformed conservationists have 
raised a cry against the tax upon our forests annually levied 
by the Christmas demand. The alarm is needless, say the 
best informed foresters, for the annual cut is beneficial 
rather than otherwise, resulting in a thinning which a young 
forest growth always needs, and which it usually fails to 
receive. On the other hand there is some real danger that 
the Christmas fern (Aspidium Acrotichoides ) will ultimately 
be practically exterminated in many places where it is com- 
mon now. ‘This fern is gathered by the million in the fall 
and put in cold storage for Christmas and later use. 
There is less of romance and poetic appeal in the gath- 
ering of Laurel, for one cannot quite forget that the season 
of its glory is when it is crowned with the marvel of its 
bloom. Despite its persistent green, there is rather a 
pathetic downward hang or droop to the leaf in winter. 
It lacks that appearance of virile, aggressive strength which 
the armed and armored Holly leaf possesses. And there 
is no red cheer of berries. Nevertheless, a trip to the rugged 
mountain side, with the sharp tang of a December morning 
biting in till the red blood races gloriously, finds ample re- 
ward in the waxy green of the Laurel. 
But while Holly and Laurel gathering may be for but 
a favored few, the Ground Pine or Lycopodium grows for 
the many. Few greens make up for decorative use to 
better effect. In swamps, in Pine woods, especially where 
at all boggy, the Ground Pine trails for the gatherer. 
A Merry Christmas to all the world! Thrice merry 
would it be could each and all gather even a few of the 
greens selected here, wherein to brighten the holiday. 
